The UK’s century-long grapple with House of Lords reform might not have the drama of the Arab Spring or the glory of the American Revolution, but the slow pace of change does offer insight into a very British kind of democracy.

There is a startling revelation in the latest volume of The Alastair Campbell Diaries, in the entry for 22 May 2003. During a cabinet meeting, the Home Secretary David Blunkett made a brief intervention. "People ought to read Hansard," Blunkett said, "especially when they were recommending 'delete genitalia and insert penis'."